IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i14p4130-d591037.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluation of New PCM/PV Configurations for Electrical Energy Efficiency Improvement through Thermal Management of PV Systems

Author

Listed:
  • Abdalqader Ahmad

    (Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK)

  • Helena Navarro

    (Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK)

  • Saikat Ghosh

    (Advanced Technology Development Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India)

  • Yulong Ding

    (Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK)

  • Jatindra Nath Roy

    (Advanced Technology Development Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India)

Abstract

Photovoltaic modules during sunny days can reach temperatures 35 °C above the ambient temperature, which strongly influences their performance and electrical efficiency as power losses can be up to −0.65%/°C. To minimize and control the PV panel temperature, the scientific community has proposed different strategies and innovative approaches, one of them through passive cooling with phase change materials (PCM). However, further investigation, including the effects of geometric shape, insulation, phase change temperature, ambient temperature, and solar radiation on the PV module power output and efficiency, needs further optimization and research. Therefore, the current work aims to investigate several system configurations and different PCMs (RT42, RT31, and RT25) and compare the system with and without insulation through computational fluid dynamic (CFD) tools. The final goal is to optimise and control the temperature of PV modules and evaluate their system efficiency and energy generation. The results showed that compared with a rectangular shape of the PCM container, the trapezoid-one exhibits a considerably better cooling performance with a negligible variation of the PV temperature, even when the melting temperature of the PCM was lower than the average ambient temperature. Moreover, the study showed that having insulation in the PCM container increases the amount of PCM needed, compared with no insulation case, and the increased amount depends on the PCM type. The newly proposed PV/PCM system configuration shows an efficiency and power generation enhancement of 17% and 14.6%, respectively, at peak times.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdalqader Ahmad & Helena Navarro & Saikat Ghosh & Yulong Ding & Jatindra Nath Roy, 2021. "Evaluation of New PCM/PV Configurations for Electrical Energy Efficiency Improvement through Thermal Management of PV Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-18, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:14:p:4130-:d:591037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4130/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4130/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abdelrazik, Ahmed S. & Al-Sulaiman, FA & Saidur, R. & Ben-Mansour, R., 2018. "A review on recent development for the design and packaging of hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 110-129.
    2. Stropnik, Rok & Stritih, Uroš, 2016. "Increasing the efficiency of PV panel with the use of PCM," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 671-679.
    3. Fouad, M.M. & Shihata, Lamia A. & Morgan, ElSayed I., 2017. "An integrated review of factors influencing the perfomance of photovoltaic panels," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1499-1511.
    4. Nižetić, Sandro & Jurčević, Mišo & Čoko, Duje & Arıcı, Müslüm, 2021. "A novel and effective passive cooling strategy for photovoltaic panel," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    5. Rajput, Usman Jamil & Yang, Jun, 2018. "Comparison of heat sink and water type PV/T collector for polycrystalline photovoltaic panel cooling," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(PA), pages 479-491.
    6. Khanna, Sourav & Reddy, K.S. & Mallick, Tapas K., 2017. "Performance analysis of tilted photovoltaic system integrated with phase change material under varying operating conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 887-899.
    7. Palacios, Anabel & Elena Navarro, M. & Barreneche, Camila & Ding, Yulong, 2020. "Hybrid 3 in 1 thermal energy storage system – Outlook for a novel storage strategy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 274(C).
    8. Pandey, A.K. & Tyagi, V.V. & Selvaraj, Jeyraj A/L & Rahim, N.A. & Tyagi, S.K., 2016. "Recent advances in solar photovoltaic systems for emerging trends and advanced applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 859-884.
    9. Chow, T.T., 2010. "A review on photovoltaic/thermal hybrid solar technology," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 365-379, February.
    10. Shenyi Wu & Chenguang Xiong, 2014. "Passive cooling technology for photovoltaic panels for domestic houses," International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 118-126.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abdelhakim Hassabou & Rima J. Isaifan, 2022. "Simulation of Phase Change Material Absorbers for Passive Cooling of Solar Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Yousef, Mohamed S. & Sharaf, Mohamed & Huzayyin, A.S., 2022. "Energy, exergy, economic, and enviroeconomic assessment of a photovoltaic module incorporated with a paraffin-metal foam composite: An experimental study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PB).
    3. Karthikeyan Velmurugan & Rajvikram Madurai Elavarasan & Pham Van De & Vaithinathan Karthikeyan & Tulja Bhavani Korukonda & Joshuva Arockia Dhanraj & Kanchanok Emsaeng & Md. Shahariar Chowdhury & Kuaan, 2022. "A Review of Heat Batteries Based PV Module Cooling—Case Studies on Performance Enhancement of Large-Scale Solar PV System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-65, February.
    4. Sharaf, Mohamed & Yousef, Mohamed S. & Huzayyin, A.S., 2022. "Year-round energy and exergy performance investigation of a photovoltaic panel coupled with metal foam/phase change material composite," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 777-789.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karthikeyan Velmurugan & Rajvikram Madurai Elavarasan & Pham Van De & Vaithinathan Karthikeyan & Tulja Bhavani Korukonda & Joshuva Arockia Dhanraj & Kanchanok Emsaeng & Md. Shahariar Chowdhury & Kuaan, 2022. "A Review of Heat Batteries Based PV Module Cooling—Case Studies on Performance Enhancement of Large-Scale Solar PV System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-65, February.
    2. Li, Zhenpeng & Ma, Tao & Zhao, Jiaxin & Song, Aotian & Cheng, Yuanda, 2019. "Experimental study and performance analysis on solar photovoltaic panel integrated with phase change material," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 471-486.
    3. Liu, Liu & Niu, Jianlei & Wu, Jian-Yong, 2023. "Improving energy efficiency of photovoltaic/thermal systems by cooling with PCM nano-emulsions: An indoor experimental study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 568-582.
    4. Khordehgah, Navid & Guichet, Valentin & Lester, Stephen P. & Jouhara, Hussam, 2019. "Computational study and experimental validation of a solar photovoltaics and thermal technology," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1348-1356.
    5. Zhou, Yuekuan & Zheng, Siqian & Zhang, Guoqiang, 2019. "Study on the energy performance enhancement of a new PCMs integrated hybrid system with the active cooling and hybrid ventilations," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 111-128.
    6. Mukhamad Faeshol Umam & Md. Hasanuzzaman & Nasrudin Abd Rahim, 2022. "Global Advancement of Nanofluid-Based Sheet and Tube Collectors for a Photovoltaic Thermal System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-37, August.
    7. Faisal Masood & Nursyarizal Bin Mohd Nor & Perumal Nallagownden & Irraivan Elamvazuthi & Rahman Saidur & Mohammad Azad Alam & Javed Akhter & Mohammad Yusuf & Mubbashar Mehmood & Mujahid Ali, 2022. "A Review of Recent Developments and Applications of Compound Parabolic Concentrator-Based Hybrid Solar Photovoltaic/Thermal Collectors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-30, May.
    8. Novak, Milan & Vohnout, Rudolf & Landkamer, Ladislav & Budik, Ondrej & Eider, Markus & Mukherjee, Amrit, 2023. "Energy-efficient smart solar system cooling for real-time dynamic weather changes in mild-climate regions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    9. Debbarma, Mary & Sudhakar, K. & Baredar, Prashant, 2017. "Thermal modeling, exergy analysis, performance of BIPV and BIPVT: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1276-1288.
    10. Lv, Song & Yang, Jiahao & Ren, Juwen & Zhang, Bolong & Lai, Yin & Chang, Zhihao, 2023. "Research and numerical analysis on performance optimization of photovoltaic-thermoelectric system incorporated with phase change materials," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PC).
    11. Getu Hailu & Alan S. Fung, 2019. "Optimum Tilt Angle and Orientation of Photovoltaic Thermal System for Application in Greater Toronto Area, Canada," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-21, November.
    12. Laura Canale & Anna Rita Di Fazio & Mario Russo & Andrea Frattolillo & Marco Dell’Isola, 2021. "An Overview on Functional Integration of Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems in Multi-Energy Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-33, February.
    13. Pang, Wei & Cui, Yanan & Zhang, Qian & Wilson, Gregory.J. & Yan, Hui, 2020. "A comparative analysis on performances of flat plate photovoltaic/thermal collectors in view of operating media, structural designs, and climate conditions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    14. Vittorini, Diego & Cipollone, Roberto, 2019. "Fin-cooled photovoltaic module modeling – Performances mapping and electric efficiency assessment under real operating conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 159-167.
    15. Giulio Mangherini & Valentina Diolaiti & Paolo Bernardoni & Alfredo Andreoli & Donato Vincenzi, 2023. "Review of Façade Photovoltaic Solutions for Less Energy-Hungry Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-35, September.
    16. Jia, Yuting & Alva, Guruprasad & Fang, Guiyin, 2019. "Development and applications of photovoltaic–thermal systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 249-265.
    17. Rajvikram Madurai Elavarasan & Karthikeyan Velmurugan & Umashankar Subramaniam & A Rakesh Kumar & Dhafer Almakhles, 2020. "Experimental Investigations Conducted for the Characteristic Study of OM29 Phase Change Material and Its Incorporation in Photovoltaic Panel," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Mojumder, Juwel Chandra & Ong, Hwai Chyuan & Chong, Wen Tong & Izadyar, Nima & Shamshirband, Shahaboddin, 2017. "The intelligent forecasting of the performances in PV/T collectors based on soft computing method," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1366-1378.
    19. Siddiqui, M.U. & Siddiqui, Osman K. & Al-Sarkhi, A. & Arif, A.F.M. & Zubair, Syed M., 2019. "A novel heat exchanger design procedure for photovoltaic panel cooling application: An analytical and experimental evaluation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 41-56.
    20. Yuan, Weiqi & Ji, Jie & Modjinou, Mawufemo & Zhou, Fan & Li, Zhaomeng & Song, Zhiying & Huang, Shengjuan & Zhao, Xudong, 2018. "Numerical simulation and experimental validation of the solar photovoltaic/thermal system with phase change material," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 715-727.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:14:p:4130-:d:591037. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.